the Gnome and KDE

[linuxman94]

Gnome and KDE are desktop environments. What that basically means is that they are the graphical environment you work in.

Here is some more information on desktop environments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kde
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME

[Darkness Des]

Welcome to the forums! Gnome and KDE are desktop environments. They're the way your desktop looks and it's ability to run certain programs. For instance: Windows has it's own desktop environment, that provides you with a start button and task bar as well as a desktop that can change. That is provided by almost all desktop environments in several different forms. KDE is just a different manager of such things with the ability to run programs that require some elements that are built into KDE. Gnome is the desktop environment in plain Ubuntu (as opposed to Kubuntu or Xubuntu), and provides a very simple experience. KDE is more graphic intense and very pretty to look at. Gnome will run on most systems. XFCE (Xubuntu) will run on very modest systems. This is my interpretation of desktop environments, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[wojox]

They are Desktop Environments. Have a look here KDE and Gnome Comparison

[bodhi.zazen]

Moved to recurring discussions.

[kaldor]

Linux (and UNIX in general) is not like Windows or Mac OS X; in Linux (due to being open source) anybody can create whatever they wish. GNOME was started by the people that swore by the GPL License (google that one and read up on it) and opposed KDE for using closed-source parts. KDE is now totally open source. GNOME and KDE are the big two.

I personally prefer KDE. I feel I can get a better experience and modify things to fit my needs easier. My girlfriend prefers GNOME; she likes the clean and simplistic layout that gives her just what she needs.

KDE is powered by Qt (pronounced Cute), which is a programming toolkit that defines how applications work with each other (simple description)

GNOME is powered by GTK; the GNU Toolkit. Same thing applies. XFCE is also based on the GTK.


It all boils down to preference. Sometimes it can also be the determining factor for work production; GNOME may be great at certain things, while KDE may not. This is why Linux is flexible... you can have whatever environment you wish.

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask questions!